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| Lieutenant Joshua Chamberlain leading a bayonet charge at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 |
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| Me, with a stick, leading the charge right where Chamberlain did it on Little Round Top! |
A
noteworthy thought from this man before you continue reading...
“We
are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the
world. We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground,
all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free…all of it; from
here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty; here we
judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be
something; here is the place to build a home. It’s not the land...there is
always more land. It’s the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we’re
fighting for, in the end, we’re fighting for each other. “
Quote
was personally dictated from the movie
Gettysburg
Introduction:
As way of introduction, check out this clip about Joshua Chamberlain.
My Thoughts on this Man:
When I think about Chamberlain, I think about sacrifice. This guy had a ton of great things going on in his life in 1861 when the Civil War began and no one would have said anything negative if he didn't join the fight and volunteer for the Union. In order to dig a bit deeper in this remarkable man's life, I examined and looked at the sacrificed he made when he joined the fight to "set other men free."
Top 8 Sacrifices
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Made when he Volunteered to Fight for the Union
1.
His Wife: married the “light of his life”, Annie
in 1855
2.
His Children: Grace and Harold were young at the time…three
other children died in infancy
3.
His Safety: was appointed as a lieutenant (font
line officer) upon enlisting…fought in over 20 battles including Antietam and
Gettysburg
4.
His Career: became of professor of languages and
rhetoric at Bowdoin College, his alma mater, in 1855
5.
His Comfort: left his large home with all of
the top amenities of the day
6.
His Recreation: enjoyed horseback riding,
swimming, and sailing
7.
His Church: former seminary student, who was
active in a Congregationalist Church…this background helped shape his strong
abolitionist views.
8.
His Education: was fluent in nine different languages…couldn’t lean another one on the battlefield
A few more clips for your viewing:
The clip below is from the movie Gettysburg and dramatizes a speech on freedom that Chamberlain gave leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg.
This last clip dramatizes Chamberlain's charge on Little Round Top...the one mentioned in Andrew's introduction clip above.
Your Thoughts???
Which of the sacrifices that Chamberlain made would be most difficult for you to make in your life today?
My cousin and I talked yesterday about why he found history so difficult a subject, and your posts speak directly to what he said. Understanding the big picture isn't difficult—which battles were important, who won, how many, expressed as a raw number, were killed or wounded. But the individual "battles within battles," as he said it, the men or women who actually sacrificed themselves or swayed the outcome in less noticable ways—well, these details are perhaps more important, perhaps more interesting, but are definitely more difficult to assess, to find, to understand. I appreciate your attention to detail. That you can create a blog just focused on this one topic proves my cousin's point, for which I'm sure he would be gratified.
ReplyDeleteAdam, I appreciate the video clips you've included in this entry. In response to your question, I think the greatest sacrifice to me would probably be safety, because I am quite the chicken at heart! I am not a parent. If I were a parent, I would probably consider the years away from my kids as the greatest sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteI would be able to fellowship with other soldiers of my faith, so I think the "church," in a way, would go with me. Also, I am sure I would find people from other language groups fighting along with me. I would practice a new language by speaking with them! I have an ancestor that had only been in America for a short while before he enlisted in the Union army to serve in the Civil War. He was from Germany and wrote many letters home in the German language. He was killed in action in the Battle of Raymond in Mississippi. Here is a link to a translation of his last letter home:
http://www.raymondhistory.org/history/yetter.htm
Mary